[Photo credit to D. James Goodwin]
Selcouth Quartet is the new improvisational group comprising drummer Joe Russo, guitarist Jonathan Goldberger, saxophonist/clarinetist/flutist Stuart Bogie, and bassist Jon Shaw and they have announced the release of their self-titled debut album via Flóki Studios Records on October 20th, 2023.
Recorded in just five days at Iceland’s Flóki Studios, Selcouth Quartet is previewed by the single, “Smaller Horses.”
Selcouth Quartet came together as the result of some “long-gestating schemes and happy accidents.” Tasked with putting together a group to open for a last-minute show, drummer Joe Russo called up three old associates. While the gig ended up being canceled, a new opportunity opened up when Russo was invited to record at Flóki Studios in Haganesvik, Iceland. He convinced his fellow musicians to see what kind of music they could make together.
Joe Russo says:
We birthed the band in the studio.
Jon Shaw adds:
Not having any predetermined material was definitely a benefit. We could do anything, no limitations.
Produced and engineered by D. James Goodwin (Tim Berne, David Torn, Bonny Light Horseman), Selcouth Quartet is informed by Russo, Goldberger, Bogie, and Shaw’s “various travels through wildly different genres and musical approaches.” Yet they also feel that it is unlike anything previously heard by them.
Russo adds:
If we had made a record for the first time in Woodstock in the spring, it wouldn’t have sounded like this. This album was completely dictated and formed by its surroundings. It sounds like how we felt.
After returning to the States, Selcouth Quartet reconvened for proper rehearsals and writing sessions having all admitted that the group had become a reality and they were “all in.”
